Title: The Good FightAuthor:missmaraRecipient:beckyh2112Prompt: After the end of the world, Dr. Brennan has a mystery to solve in the form of a man who looks exactly like her dead partner. Fandom: Bones/Angel Rating: R Spoilers (if applicable): Everything up until the end of Season 4. Warnings (if applicable): Past (major) character death. Summary:Dr. Temperance Brennan had always thought she would be the last person to lose her mind completely..Notes: Many thanks to my wonderful beta, garnigal

Dr. Temperance Brennan had always thought she would be the last person to lose her mind completely. She hadn't even thought that the end of the world could bring that on. And yet... she was seeing Seeley Booth standing right in front of her, nearly 3 months after he took his last breath, his hand clasped in hers as the others looked on.

"Who are you?" Brennan asked, her voice tightly controlled to hide any trace of emotion, of denial and fear and hope.

"My name's Angel..."

"This isn't funny," Brennan said. "Half the world is dead, there are no criminals to catch by faking your death, Booth."

"I'm not who you think I am," he replied, backing up a step with hands raised slightly in defense. "My name is Angel, I'm not Seeley Booth."

"Who are you?" Brennan repeated.

"I told you, my name is Angel. I'm here to see if I can help."

"Help?" Brennan asked.

"Have you had a recent spate of deaths?"

Brennan stared for a moment. "Did you miss the death of half the world's population 4 months ago?" she asked.

"More recent," Angel replied. "Within the last few weeks. Puncture wounds in the neck of wrist, drained of blood?"

Brennan nodded, a bit reluctant. No one on her team could figure it out, though Hodgins had suggested that the government hadn't been able to control the vampire population anymore. No one had really taken the suggestion seriously, though, since he also hadn't slept in three days. "Yes," she finally said. "You know something about them?"

"A little," Angel said, a small smirk appearing on his face. "You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"I'll listen to theories, as long as they are couched as theories only," Brennan said firmly. "Although at the moment, I'm still wondering why you look exactly like Booth."

"Long story," Angel said. "Maybe I'll tell you after we take care of your little problem."

"Little? Nearly 300 additional deaths in the last month and a half, all drained of blood, is a little problem to you?" Angela Montenegro said later at the Jeffersonian, trying not to stare. "And is anyone else really creeped out by the fact that he's identical to Booth?" There was a show of hands, with Dr. Zack Addy leading the pack, followed closely by Dr. Jack Hodgins.

"Mr. Angel has already said he'll explain after we take care of this," Brennan said.

"So what's going on?" Hodgins asked. "I'm stilling putting my money on Vampires. With the government in shambles, there's no one to keep them under control."

"Hodgins..." Angela began.

"That's pretty close, actually," Angel said at the same time.

For a moment there was silence. "What?" Brennan asked.

"Vampires aren't real," Zack said.

"I'm right?" Hodgins said. "I mean, of course I'm right."

"Vampires are real," Angel told Zack. "When the last demon was banished from Earth, he bit a human, infecting the human with himself. That human was the first vampire, and bit other humans, spreading the curse around the world," he explained to the room at large. "The government did have a containment program called 'The Initiative', but what little good they did ended after the big death. We also lost most of the slayers who had been keeping the population down, there's only a handful left, and they're mostly stranded in Europe, which does us no good."

"I don't buy it," Angela said, shaking her head.

"It's true," Angel said, taking a step back to be sure he was out of arm's reach, then vamping his face, making sure they saw the fangs before returning to normal. "Any questions?"

"How do we handle this?" Brennan asked.

"You seem quick to accept this," Angela said later, as she and Brennan collected various styles of crossbows from the Jeffersonian storage rooms.

"Every culture in the world seems to have some type of Vampire myth," Brennan replied. "They can't all be wrong."

"But... vampires? Including one with Booth's face?"

"He said it was a long story and he'd explain after we had the situation under control," Brennan said.

"Several years ago, a friend attempted a spell to give me back my humanity," Angel began once everyone was gathered and seated comfortably. "It went a little... awry. It created a human version of me, but... I was left a vampire."

"So Booth was... your magical clone?" Hodgins asked.

"In a way," Angel agreed. "He had no memory, no... mind really. But, around the same time, the real Seeley Booth was killed. Ironically, by a vampire. So, my friend did a spell, transferred Booth's mind into the human version of me, then another spell to make everyone believe he'd always looked like that. The spell even altered photos of him going back to childhood."

"Did Booth know?" Angela asked, her tone slightly horrified.

Angel nodded. "We gave him a choice whether to be affected by the spell or not, he chose not."

"So... Booth wasn't exactly Booth?" Angela asked.

"Was he... that body... Parker's father?" Brennan asked.

"Yes," Angel replied. "Parker was born a few years after the transfer." He looked around the group. "He was a good man, I'm sorry to hear he died. Again."

"There's nothing you can do?" Brennan asked.

Angel shook his head. "I'm afraid not. Maybe if Willow had been here right then, she might have done something, but... not now."

Brennan nodded. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Helping us figure out how to stop what's happening," Brennan said.

Angel nodded. "It's what I do."

"What is? Teaching a bunch of newbies how to kill Vampires?" Angela asked.

"Making sure good people know how to fight the good fight," Angel corrected, smiling. "What's left of the... Scoobies as they used to call themselves, are elsewhere in the country and the world doing the same thing. Finding pockets of people willing and able to fight back. We're hoping it'll be enough."

I like this. Is good to see the staff of the Jeffersonian still working as a team, and even better to imagine them as vampire hunters. Especially Bones, with her "misprogrammed Terminator"-like tendencies already. ^_^

"Several years ago, a friend attempted a spell to give me back my humanity,"

Angel doesn't have a good grasp on how long 'several' is if this spell was far enough back to give Booth a few years before having Parker. Silly vampire.